The other three regions had unemployment rates between 4.0 and 5.0 percent at the end of 1999. The South’s rate was 4.0 percent and the rate in the Northeast was 4.2 percent. In the West, the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent.

Three of the region’s had jobless rates in the fourth quarter of 1999 that were at historical lows. The exception was the Northeast, where the rate was only slightly above the 4.0 percent recorded during three different quarters in the late 1980s.